Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Like many of his generation, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe in the early seventies -- in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. Twenty years later he decided to retrace the journey he undertook in the halcyon days of his youth. The result is Neither Here Nor There, an affectionate and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul, with stops along the way in Europe's most diverting and historic locales. Like many of his generation, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe in the early seventies--in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. Twenty years later he decided to retrace the journey he undertook in the halcyon days of his youth. The result is Neither Here Nor There, an affectionate and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul, with stops along the way in Europe's most diverting and historic locales.

Synopsis

In the early seventies, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe—in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. He was accompanied by an unforgettable sidekick named Stephen Katz (who will be gloriously familiar to readers of Bryson's A Walk in the Woods). Twenty years later, he decided to retrace his journey. The result is the affectionate and riotously funny Neither Here Nor There.

About the Author

Bill Bryson is the New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods, The Lost Continent, The Mother Tongue, Neither Here Nor There, Made in America, Notes from a Small Island, Notes from a Big Country, Down Under, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Shakespeare: The World as Stage, At Home, and A Short History of Nearly Everything, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, won the Aventis Prize for Science Books, and was awarded the Descartes Science Communication Prize. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Bryson now lives in Norfolk, England, with his wife and four children.

51

What Our Readers Are Saying

Average customer rating 5 (1 comments)

I confess--I'm a travel essay junky. I love Bill Bryson's humor and the fact that he never begins a chapter with anything like, "I was beginning to wonder if the Bengal tiger would maul me before I managed to extricate myself from the 300 foot chasm I had fallen into." Bryson's adventures are much more ordinary, and charming for it. He is a bit of a bumbler at times, spraining his ankle, losing his wallet to a charming 10 year old pickpocket. He's also extremely knowledgeable and conveys a great deal of information without seeming to try. This book isn't a guidebook, by any means, but is chock-full of Bryson's wry opinions, and would be as good a starting point as any for the virgin traveler to Europe. Bryson wrote Neither Here Nor There in 1992, and intersperses present day stories with anecdotes about a trip taken with his friend Steven Katz twenty years earlier.
It's been over twenty years since Neither Here Nor There, and high time for Bryson to get back over the pond and write the sequel!